RAPID: Implications of Utilities Decision-making and Communication Strategies in Urban Populations Response under Extreme Weather Events

这个快速反应研究（RAPID）项目的赠款将调查当地公用事业公司如何在极端天气事件下制定他们的沟通战略计划和决策，并确定沟通和决策方法的效率低下，以加强沟通，确保更公平的结果。2021年春季极涡引发的极端天气事件影响了德克萨斯州的能源和水基础设施，导致数百万德克萨斯人无法获得这些基本服务。公用事业与社区之间的沟通不足是加剧社区所受影响的一个问题。这个RAPID项目旨在了解从公用事业公司到社区客户的通信方法的效率低下，以及电网故障迫使停电时的决策。从这项工作中获得的经验知识将支持灾害、公用事业通信以及对家庭和建筑环境影响的交叉研究。此外，研究结果有可能帮助确定公用事业公司在决策和沟通工作中建立弹性的机会。该项目团队将为公用事业公司创建技术指导，以积极加强沟通策略，从而促进NSF的使命，即产生科学，以帮助促进我们国家社区的健康，繁荣和福利。本研究主要针对三个研究领域，从半结构化访谈中撷取短暂性资料。首先，现有的停电数据将与采访数据和来自其他来源的数据相结合，以在空间上捕获和解决社区内经历停电的区域，其持续时间和极端天气事件期间的时间。接下来，从公用事业公司收集的访谈数据将使他们的沟通方法和决策的理解下“典型”和“危机”时期。这些数据将确定公用事业公司在沟通工作中建立复原力的机会。最后，与社区团体和利益攸关方的进一步访谈将有助于了解公用事业公司的来文是如何接收和处理的，以及如何针对缺乏基本服务的情况制定替代性基层通信方法。从广义上讲，这项研究将创建技术指导，为关键的关键部门提供信息（例如，（水、电）在极端天气事件期间与客户的有效沟通方法，并强调公平的决策机会。该研究还将通过将危机下的社会互动与公用事业和客户之间的沟通模式联系起来，为沟通理论提供信息。一个迭代的过程将确定和建议的战略，以评估公平为导向的决策过程之前，电力负荷shedrify.This奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是值得通过评估使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准的支持。

This Grants for Rapid Response Research (RAPID) project will investigate how local utilities develop their communication strategy plans and decision making under an extreme weather event and identify both inefficiencies in the communications and decision-making approaches to enhance communications and ensure more equitable outcomes. The extreme weather events caused by the Polar Vortex in spring 2021 impacted Texas’ energy and water infrastructures, leaving millions of Texans without access to these basic services. An issue that played a role in exacerbating the impacts incurred by communities was the inadequate communication between utilities and the community. This RAPID project seeks to understand inefficiencies in the communication approaches from utilities to their community-based customers as well as decision making when grid failures forced blackouts. The empirical knowledge derived from this work will support research at the intersection of disasters, utilities' communications, and impact on households and the built environment. Additionally, findings have the potential to help identify opportunities for utilities to build resilience in their decision making and communication efforts. The project team will create technical guidance for utilities to proactively strengthen communication strategies thereby promote NSF’s mission of generating science to help advance the health, prosperity, and welfare of our nation’s communities. This research focuses on capturing the ephemeral data from semi-structured interviews in three research thrusts areas. First, existing outage data will be coupled with interview data and data from other sources to spatially capture and resolve areas within communities that experienced power loss, their duration, and timing during the extreme weather events. Next, interview data collected from utilities will enable the understanding of their communication approaches and decision making under 'typical' and 'crisis' periods. These data will identify opportunities for utilities to build resilience in their communication efforts. Lastly, additional interviews with community groups and stakeholders will provide an understanding of how utilities' communications were received and processed, and how alternative grassroots communication approaches were developed in response to the lack of basic services. Broadly, this research will create technical guidance to inform key critical sectors (e.g., water, electricity) on effective communication approaches with customers during extreme weather events and highlight equitable decision-making opportunities. The research will also inform communications theory by linking social interactions under crises with communication patterns between utilities and customers. An iterative process will identify and suggest strategies for evaluating equity-oriented decision-making processes prior to electric load shedding.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.